Ghizela Vass, a Romanian communist, was an activist and politician of the Romanian Communist Party. In its 2007 report, the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania identified her as one of the two main agents of the Communist regime involved in policies pertaining to external affairs. Born in Iași, Vass went through seven years of elementary school, later attending the Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy. A seamstress by trade, she joined the textile workers’ union in 1930 and was part of International Red AidChișinău from 1931 to 1933. She joined the Romanian Communist Party, then illegal, in 1933. A Jew, she was deported to the Transnistria Governorate during World War II. After the King Michael Coup of August 23, 1944, she held a number of positions in the PCR, starting as a member of the Bucharest county party committee bureau. In 1948 she joined the Ilfov County party committee. Vass served as adjunct to the chief of the Organizational Section of the Central Committee of the PMR; president of the county committee of party memberverification from Reșița, secretary of the Bucharest city party committee ; chief of the Women's Party Work Section of the Central Committee of the PMR ; inspector for the Central Committee of the PMR and coordinator of the Foreign Cadres and Foreign Relations Sections of the Central Committee of the PMR ; chief of the Foreign Relations Section of the Central Committee of the PMR ; chief of the International Section of the Central Committee of the PMR ; and adjunct to the chief of the International Relations and International Economic Cooperation Section of the Central Committee of the PCR. She retired in February 1982. Vass was an alternate member of the Central Committee of the PMR and a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian PMR . She served in the Great National Assembly from 1952 to 1957, elected for the Focșani district, Regiunea Bârlad. She was awarded membership in the following orders: “Steaua Republicii Populare Române”, class III ; class II ; “Ordinul Muncii”, class II ; class I ; “Apărarea Patriei”, class II ; “23 August”, class II ; and “Tudor Vladimirescu”, class II. Additionally, she was given the title “Erou al Muncii Socialiste din RSR” in 1971. She was married to Ladislau Vass, himself a Central Committee member, and lived for many years on Zambaccian Street, nr 1, in Bucharest. She had two daughters; one left for the United States in 1980, the other had a son, Bogdan Olteanu, the former president of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania.
